Crumble
by SakuraIchigoDark
Summary: It takes great strength not to crumble at life's ordeals. Levy stood strong through the hardships. She was such a bright person, so why is she crying and smiling as the world crumbles around her? Because, this is not her world, her world just confessed. (GaLe. T for one swear word. Currently a one-shot, may be a two shot in the future)


Levy was strong. No matter what anyone said, or what she thought, she was one of the strongest people out there. Maybe not physically, there are certain limitations when one's body is as petite as hers'. But mentally Levy was stronger than she'd ever admit. Not only did she forgive the one person who caused her a great amount of pain, but she be-friended him, fought for him, cried for him and somewhere along the way, she fell head over heels for him. Of course she did not just wake up like that one day, she went through many hardships to become the fun-sized spit-fire we all know and love.

When most would've fallen, she stood strong. When most would've collapsed, she clung onto her nakama and limped forward. When most would've cried, she wiped away her tears. When most would've demanded revenge, she forgave. When most would've cowered, she stepped up to the challenge. When most would've demanded he helped out of guilt, she begged him out of friendship. When most would've stood alone, she stood by him. When most would've died, he saved her. When most would've ran away, she came back. When most would've crumbled, she held strong, she held his hand and she fell in love. You see most people, are not Levy Mcgarden.

So how did little-Levy go from being someone who could brighten up the world with her smile, to the person who wanted the world to crumble along with her? It all started on that fateful day.

_"7/7..."  
_

She didn't brake immediately. Fate took it's sweet time in destroying her. That day was supposed to be filled with laughter and joy, it wasn't supposed to be the start of the end. The guild roared with laughter at its impending victory, they had done it! They could get the old guild back, they could prove that fairy tail wasn't weak and maybe, just maybe, a certain blunette bookworm could pluck up the courage to ask a certain dragon slayer out on a mission, after all, she needed to test out her second origin. She giggled at the thought, she wondered just what she could do with her new found power.

No one truly knew how it happened, one moment chorus of roars pierced the sky and the next, hell had broken loose. When the first dragon landed it wasted no time in plunging its tail into the heart of an innocent bystander, but it wasn't satisfied. The mighty beast scanned the crowed for someone worth its effort, easier said than done when everyone is running for their lives, that's when its gaze settled on her.

The script mage was the only person who couldn't move. At first she was surprised by the creature's appearance, then she was scared and when her eyes locked with cold yellow ones, she as petrified. Slowly, it moved towards her. She commanded her body to do something, anything, but it refused her wishes. Tears pricked her eyes as the beast moved closer, she was done for, unless she moved. Soon the dragon was in front of her, it raised one of its powerful paws and brought it down. She closed her eyes in preparation for the attack, however it never came.

"Gajeel!" She called out, as the raven haired man drove his fist into the overgrown lizard's snout.

"Thought I told ya not to leave my side, shrimp." he smirked before turning on her. He grabbed her dainty wrist and bolted down one of the contestant tunnels. Suddenly he stopped and shoved the lilth bluenette into a small crevasse in the tunnel. "Stay hidden." He commanded, as he pushed her down. "I'm gonna deal with those overgrown lizards. Promise me ya'll stay hidden."

"Gajeel I-" She reached up to touch his face but he swiftly grasped it and used it to pull her into an awkward hug. When he let go, he grinned and told her to save the sappy love confessions for when he came back. He ruffled her hair and covered her hiding spot with a scrap piece of metal.

His words were full of promise, but his eyes were full of regret when he told her that. That was what made the first crack in her happy demeanour. "Promise me ya wont die."

_"...He..."_

She waited. She waited and waited and waited for Gajeel, he said that he'd come back, and she believed in him. She wasn't going to give up on him. He had trusted her, it was her turn to trust him. She tried to block out the screams. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the fact that she could help them, that innocent people were dying.

A mother stumbled close to the young mage's hiding spot. Blood adorned her clothes, gashes littered her skin and pain bore its way deep into her joints, but she didn't stop. She didn't lay down and die because there, in her arms, was a young child. The child clung close to his mother, unaware of the creature that lurked behind the two. Suddenly, the mother was swatted away, as if she was no more than an annoying fly. The child tumbled to the floor as his mother's bones snapped. The dragon turned to the trembling child, a sadistic glint present in its cold eyes. Its tail darted forward to spear the human hatchling.

Blood splattered the floor next to the child. He opened his eyes and gasped at what he saw. A sapphire haired girl had halted the dragon with her bare hands. She was bathed in an otherworldly light, he reasoned that she was an angel. "Hide." She hissed. The young boy did just that, he bolted into a small gap in the wall and hid, while his angel slayed the demon that hurt his mother.

Blood splattered the floor around her, she shouldn't have done that, but what choice did she have? Weak or not, she wasn't going to let a child die right in front of her. Raw magic cloaked her figure and blew through her aqua locks. Through the pain she ordered the child to hide. Her magic wasn't meant for strengthening her body, and she hadn't practised using her second origin, who knew if she could control it after a stunt like that? When the dragon had threatened to kill the child -the raven haired child- something inside her snapped. She unleashed her second origin and used her own body to deflect the dragon's attack, thank goodness her magic had surrounded her body, or else she'd have been slaughtered instantly. She hissed as the bladed tail dug into her arms, that was going to leave some nasty scars. She stole a glance back at child, the child had probably never seen so much blood, but unfortunately that was reality.

Her magic licked her wounds, it begged her to use it, she could save her loved ones with such power. "Leave." She hissed darkly, as her magic plunged into the beast before her. It decided that the humans outside would be far more filling than the shrimp of a mage before it and flew away.

The bookworm-turned-warrior turned to the child. "Hide or die, this is reality." She muttered before running out to find her loved one.

Surely he would be alive, right?

_"...Who I loved..."_

"Solid script: Guard!" A bruised blunette screamed for the umpteenth time. "Run!" She ordered the people behind her. She wasn't going to put herself in harms way until she found her dragon slayer, but she couldn't find him, and she refused to sit by and let innocents die. If she found Gajeel the they'd evacuate everyone together, but until then, she'd save as many people as she could.

The young woman limped through the smoke, she had to find him, she had a nagging feeling in her gut that-she stopped. She covered her mouth and fell backwards. There, at her feet, was an arm. She didn't want to know who it belonged to, she hoped that the person didn't use their right hand for magic. She almost gagged and turned away from the limb, tears blurred her vision and she tried to convince herself that the mark on the hand wasn't the fairy tail insignia.

Her legs propelled her through the smoke. "Solid script: Storm." The word blew away the smoke that threatened to clog her lungs. Eventually the tired human came across a blood stained headband, her fingers brushed the plush fabric, before picking it up. She knew this headband, she had watched its owner fight on the 4th day of the grand magic games, the day they had believed in their victory. Hell, she had given the owner the headband to begin with. With it clutched in her grasp she bolted off to find her dragon slayer. _'He can't be... I can't stay by his side if he is...' _She told herself as she followed the trail of crimson blood, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that he was safe, the evidence said otherwise.

"Iron dragon's roar!"

"Solid script: Guard!" The script mage screamed when she heard that familiar voice. She grinned as a dragon rammed into her guard. "Baka." She joked as she pressed her back into Gajeel's.

"Gihi, being smart's yer job, shrimp." He joked despite his wounds. Part of him was angry that the shrimp didn't remain hidden, but at the same time he was glad that she was by his side. "Why ya here?" He asked as he punched an oncoming dragon with an iron club.

"It's hard to find someone so small!" She shouted through the flames of her solid script.

"Which is why ya should've stayed hidd-"

"So don't leave my side." She whispered. "You told me not to leave your side! Well you're not allowed to leave mine!" She shouted. "Solid script: Iron! Eat that!" Their attention was back to the fight around them with those five words. Gajeel devoured the iron and stabbed a dragon in the eye. Suddenly the smoke around them dispersed as two large wings pulled the dragon high into the sky. "Watch out!" Gajeel bellowed as he flung himself over her tiny body, had the circumstances been better would've blushed due to the body that was pressed against his own. She curled into his body as a form of comfort (whether she was attempting to comfort herself or Gajeel she did not know). "Live." He whispered as his body grew limp. He fell to the side.

Once again her body refused to move, it, along with her, was frozen in shock. Eventually she turned to his body. "H-hey." She whispered as she reached out towards his body. "Hey." She whispered as she touched his body, they'd wanted to touch for the longest time, if only the situation was different. Her soft hands wrapped themselves around his and clutched the appendage close to her chest. She didn't fight the tears as they rolled down her face.

"Fuck. Why do ya always seem to cry around me?"

"Gajeel!" She screamed in joy as he looked at her with his beautiful rusty red eyes.

"You better not be sad without me shrimp." He smirked despite his predicament. However his chuckles soon turned into coughs as blood splattered his chest.

"B-baka! Don't talk!" She tightened her grip around his large hands, the same hands that had ruffled her hair just moments ago and had held her hand when they had faced the enemy known as death back on tenroujima. "I'm sorry..."

"I said don't talk, you idiot! " She screamed again.

"Well I aint that smart. So let me talk. Look Levy," A sob ripped itself free from the petite mage's throat, she could count on one hand the amount of times he's used her real name. He brushed a stand of hair out of her face and rested his hand on her soft cheek, before continuing. "I was in a dark place, thought I'd be in the dark forever. Master may've shown me the path to follow to reach the light, but I sure as hell didn't expect you to be the light I was looking for." Using the last of his strength he bushed his lips against his blunette's -because damn it all, yes, she was his, even if it was only for a few dying moments- before he whispered the words that he could never bring himself to say. "I love you, Levy Mcgarden."

_ "...died."_

That was the final crack that broke her. Levy screamed. Why? She hadn't left his side, so why did he die? That wasn't supposed to happen, not after he had finally confessed. In her dreams they had kissed and lived happily ever after, where was her happily ever after? _'No'_ She thought. _'Screw that where's HIS happily ever after?!'  
_

"First you take his family, then his light, then you kill him when he defies you? Well you know what? Screw you fate, I wont let you have your way." Magic rose from the ground at her confession. Slowly, the pawn of fate that took him from her edged closer to claim its prize. "Leave" She growled at it. Her magic plunged into the floor in front of the beast, effectively scaring it away. Levy allowed herself the privilege of crying into his cold chest. After all he was her pillar of strength, what could she do now that he had crumbled? Crumble, much like the world around her. Slowly, a dark thought took advantage of her vulnerability. The thought filled her with the dark power that fuelled eclipse and the time rift that brought the dragons to their time. Magic pulsed around her as she placed a kiss on her love's cold lips, a tear fell onto his closed eyes as she came to her decision.

She allowed the majority of her magic to reach out towards the gate that could change the world. She allowed the gate's magic to fill her, a small voice asked her if she was willing to pay the price. "I am well aware of the price, and I am more than willing to pay it if I can change his fate." She whispered in reply. At her acceptance dark magic flowed through her magic into her. Levy searched through it for a certain magic that she knew the gate had absorbed. As soon as she found it, with the last of her light she poured it into Gajeel. His wounds closed up as she did so. "Wha-"

"Thank goodness." Levy smiled through her tears. "I would crumble without you, this world my crumble but you can't." What was she talking about? Gajeel's eyes widened when he saw the dark magic flowing into the woman he loved. He clutched her hand tighter and attempted to sit up. "Sh-shrimp, what did ya-"

"This world will crumble." She repeated him. Gently an otherworldly force tugged at Gajeel. Suddenly magic pulsed and rippled throughout the place. It destroyed everything in its wake, Gajeel felt the ground underneath him split and rise into the sky. He moved his head to face Levy. "What's-" He was interrupted by Levy placing her loosening her grip on his hand. "This world will crumble." Repeated once again. Gajeel's eyes widened as he finally realised what Levy was doing. "Levy, don't." He begged, as tears found their way to the corners of his eyes.

"I was small, but you made me big. This world may crumble, but as long as I know you're safe, I'll may brake, but I'll never crumble along with it. I will change fate, I will change YOUR fate, because I..." She let go of his hand, assured that he's be safe. "I love you, Gajeel Redfox."

"LEVY!"

The petite blunette hid her tears behind her hair, as the darkness took hold of her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Lucy, Natsu, Erza, Wendy, Lisanna and Cana (to name a few) where saved from the crumbling world as well. Levy smiled as the world around her collapsed. She smiled because the world around her wasn't her world, her world had told her that he loved her, and she had told him the same. "Live." She whispered. "Live in your own era."

* * *

**I may make this into a two-shot... what do yo think? Yes? No?**

**Explanation: magic comes from emotions, the strongest of all (and the one magic) is love. No, that magic is not all of Levy's, she simply used her power boost from her second origin and her love for Gajeel to use eclipse to change fate. That is why Gajeel didn't die.  
**

**Also I've fallen in love with the theory that the dragon slayers and the 10,000 dragons are from 400 years ago (remember? the dragon civil war)**

**Fun facts: Ryo is a variant transcription of RYOU, which can mean reality, cool, refreshing or distant (does anyone know the real spelling of raios/ryos' name? 'cause I really want to know...)**

**The members of shadow gear all have the same colour insignia, on the same part of their body.**

**Has anyone else noticed that Lucy summons her spirits using her right hand? **

**If I did make it a two shot I'd go into the past/future of the dragon slayers and everyone at fairy tail.**


End file.
